Kimberly Skehan of Simione Healthcare Consultants leads this session that educates on how Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement has a significant impact on survey readiness, demonstration of quality to the public and referral sources, and the agency's bottom line due to the financial implications of performance measures under value based purchasing and other key quality measures. From the HCAF Conference, industry best practices and examples will guide viewers in developing a program for prioritizing QAPI measures.

Matthew Capell of FHS Seniorcare Payment Solutions discusses the many factors that are fueling the concerns that government-sponsored programs will not be able to sustain the rising long-term care costs of our rapidly aging population. In order to thrive in the evolving health care ecosystem, home care agencies must understand how these programs are changing and how newly emerging programs will alter the landscape dramatically. From the HCAF Conference.

From the HCAF Conference, Arnie Cisneros and Kimberly McCormick of Home Health Strategic Management deliver an excellent session on new care and programming models outlined in the Affordable Care Act that have now arrived. Providers face new challenges that alter many of our historical community care delivery practices. VBP, CCJR, readmission efforts and Alternate Payment Models require a shift from volume to value. This presentation outlines the drivers that to elevate the value in your programs.

From the HCAF Conference: With reimbursement shrinking over the years and a variety of pre- and post-payment reviews and recoupments, budgeting and forecasting your agency's overall bottom line is a challenge now more than ever. John Reiseinger of Innovative Financial Solutions delivers an informative session that will help you make sense of it all and help you chart a course for smoother seas when it comes to budgeting and forecasting for your agency as you set sail towards the new horizon of ACOs and Value Based Purchasing.

Elliott Wood of Medalogix joins the podcast to talk about his recent article/blogpost on the term "Population Health" and what that REALLY means in the Home Care space. We learn about his journey to Medalogix, and spend lots of time talking through the fascinating and visionary company that is Medalogix. Elliott is a Nashville native, with a degree in Psychology from Abilene Christian University, then two semesters of graduate work in clinical psychology – then left to join HealthStream because of his love of data/analytics. Left for Medalogix because of Dan Hogan. Medalogix is 6 years old. Founded by Dan Hogan. Takes data from Home Health providers nightly, looks at patterns and predictive models to help Home Health agencies. Currently focused on different products to best leverage that data.

During our conversation, we lament the overuse of industry buzzwords (while using them ourselves, shamefully), but how to use these industry terms correctly when educating our collective audience. My children make noise in the background. His definition of how Medalogix defines it is how to keep Home Health Agencies patients, their average daily census, from getting readmitted to the hospital.

A quick discussion of an early misstep, or failure at Medalogix has turned into a burgeoning success relative to how to actually use the data that they are collecting and analyzing about Home Health agencies. I like how he talks about providing "action" to their customers rather than simply providing "value." Elliott gives us some success stories with their products Bridge and Touch. And I love their goal of driving better Clinical Conversations between caregiver and patient.

We also touch on a sensitive topic about our country's, our society's approach to end-of-life care.

The HHCAHPS is divided into 3 composite question categories and 2 specific questions. In this webinar we will focus on the composite questions related to Care of Patients. Included in the webinar will be improvement suggestions for each of the 4 questions along with implementation information for a PIP based on this composite question.